Only one university in South Africa moved up the latest global ranking
The ShanghaiRanking Consultancy has published its 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), highlighting the top 1,000 universities in the world—including eight from South Africa.
The ARWU does not reveal the total score for universities outside of the top 100, with those listed outside of this only being placed within a range alphabetically.
None of South Africa’s universities were ranked in the top 100, but four universities did rank within the top 500 – and only the University of Johannesburg moved up a ranking range on the global list.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) again ranked as the top university in the country and is the only local institute to be ranked within the top 300 globally (201-300).
This is followed by the University of the Witwatersrand (301-400), with Stellenbosch University and the University of Johannesburg in the next ranking range of 401-500.
The University of Johannesburg improved its standing in 2024, having been ranked in the 501-600 range in 2023. It was the only university in the country to improve its range standing this year.
However, the University of Pretoria fell in its position, now in the 501-600 range along with the University of KwaZulu Natal.
The University of the North-West also dropped in the rankings, falling from the 501-600 range to the 601-700 range.
Closing up the rankings is Unisa, within the 901-1000 range.
| 2023 Range | 2024 Range | University | 2023 Local # | 2024 Local # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 201-300 | 201-300 | University of Cape Town | 1 | 1 |
| 301-400 | 301-400 | University of Witwatersrand | 2 | 2 |
| 401-500 | 401-500 | Stellenbosch University | 3-4 | 3-4 |
| 501-600 | 401-500 | University of Johannesburg | 5-7 | 3-4 |
| 501-600 | 501-600 | University of KwaZulu Natal | 5-7 | 5-6 |
| 401-500 | 501-600 | University of Pretoria | 3-4 | 5-6 |
| 501-600 | 601-700 | North-West University | 5-7 | 7 |
| 901-1000 | 901-1000 | University of South Africa | 8 | 8 |
The ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities:
- The number of alumni who win Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10%)
- The number of staff who win Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20%)
- The number of highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories (20%)
- The number of papers published in Nature and Science (20%)
- The number of papers indexed in the Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index (20%)
- The per capita academic performance of an institution (10%)
More than 2,500 universities are actually ranked by ARWU every year, and the best 1,000 are published.
Globally, Harvard University topped the ranking for the 22nd year, followed by Stanford and MIT.
Other Top 10 universities are Cambridge (4th), Berkeley (5th), Oxford (6th), Princeton (7th), Caltech (8th), Columbia (8th), and Chicago (10th).
Paris-Saclay University (12th) rose three positions in Continental Europe and remains the best in the region, followed by ETH Zurich (21st).
Among Asian universities, Tsinghua University (22nd) maintains its position and once again secures its status as the best in Asia.
The University of Melbourne (37th) has topped other universities in Oceania for fourteen consecutive years since 2011.
Read: The 15 best universities in South Africa in new global ranking
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